


Ringing

by fanfictiongreenirises



Series: Batman Bingo 2020 [10]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Don't copy to another site, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Podfic Available, Slice of Life, Tim Drake is Robin, no beta this was written on a caramel mudcake high, why do none of the batfam have good bro tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:20:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23185402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanfictiongreenirises/pseuds/fanfictiongreenirises
Summary: The phone was in the living room – the casual one – placed on the side table, a set of keys and a well-worn and very familiar wallet next to it. There was a duffle bag on the ground.Bruce blinked at the caller name displayed on the phone, something seizing in his chest.Dad.Or, the one where Bruce finds out what Dick has him as in his phone and experiences emotions.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson
Series: Batman Bingo 2020 [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1622032
Comments: 58
Kudos: 826
Collections: Bat Hugs, Dick & Bruce, everybody loves dick





	Ringing

**Author's Note:**

> For the "Dad" square on my bingo card! For the anon on tumblr who requested this ^~^
> 
> This now has a podfic (linked in end notes!!) read by @PM_reads, which is absolutely beautiful, so go listen to that!!!!
> 
> lol so i didn't expect to be writing another fic quite so soon? but i had a couple hours and it practically wrote itself ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ with uni now going pretty much online (!!!!) i'll hopefully have more time to write ^~^
> 
> Disclaimer: No longer want to drop my degrees but still don't own DC

THIS FANFICTION IS HOSTED ON **ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN** , WHERE YOU CAN READ IT FOR **FREE**. IF YOU’RE READING THIS ON A DIFFERENT WEBSITE, IT WAS POSTED THERE **WITHOUT** THE AUTHOR’S CONSENT.

Bruce hadn’t even known that Dick was at the Manor. He’d walked downstairs from his office, the sky outside beginning to darken as twilight crept in, and realised that Dick hadn’t confirmed whether he’d be patrolling with Bruce and Tim that night.

Bruce opened up his contacts on his phone, idly flicking away notifications that popped up. He was beginning to rethink taking his phone off Do Not Disturb mode. Dick’s number was near the top, right below Clark’s on his favourites list.

He held the phone against his ear with his shoulder as he fished around in the fridge for the last remnants of orange juice he was sure they still had. Alfred would’ve been able to tell him, but Alfred was currently (maybe) in the other end of the Manor, and Bruce had no intention of walking there and back when he could look himself.

The phone was ringing when Bruce finally emerged out of the fridge, a clear container with maybe two sips of orange juice in hand. He looked mournfully at it before chugging straight from the bottle, after a glance around to ensure that Alfred definitely wasn’t standing behind him somewhere.

Strangely, there seemed to be another ringing in the Manor somewhere. Had Alfred or Tim left their phones lying around?

Bruce placed the empty bottle in the bin and walked in the direction of the ringing. The ringtone was some overplayed, bouncy jaunt that Bruce knew with certainty would be stuck in his head for days to come.

The phone was in the living room – the casual one – placed on the side table, a set of keys and a well-worn and _very_ familiar wallet next to it. There was a duffle bag on the ground next to it.

Bruce blinked at the caller name displayed on the phone, something seizing in his chest.

 _Dad_.

This was _Dick’s_ phone. Bruce ended the call, watching as the phone in front of him indicated that there had been a missed call.

A missed call from ‘ _Dad_ ’.

Dick had once addressed him as that, and Bruce had nearly had a heart attack. He’d known that Dick had come to see him as a father, just as he’d come to see Dick as his son, a while ago. But he hadn’t known _this_ , that Dick would be using that title sincerely; there were no emojis attached to it, like there’d been to Alfred’s ‘Gramps’, nor was it overdramatic like the contact name for Barbara had been when they’d been dating. (Bruce was still certain that Barbara had set that herself, because the wide-eyed look on Dick’s face when he’d seen caller ID pop up had spoken a thousand words.)

“Hey, was that my phone?” Dick called from somewhere behind Bruce.

Bruce had a millisecond to get his face under control before he plucked the phone up and handed it to Dick. The corners of his mouth turned up at the sight of him.

“I called,” he told him. “I wanted to know if you were still planning on joining us on patrol.”

Dick’s smile was much brighter, much wider, than Bruce’s was, as it always had been. “Guess you got your answer,” he said. “Tim answered the door when I got here, wanted to show me something, so…” He shrugged.

Bruce hadn’t even known Tim was in the Manor, but this explained why he hadn’t been able to find Alfred. “He’s happy you’re here.”

Dick leaned down to grab his bag. “It’s fun, teaching him how to be Robin,” he said. Jason went unspoken between them. Tim was Dick’s way of making right with Jason’s ghost, and Bruce could respect that, no matter how excruciating he found it.

It was better than having no Dick around, in any case.

Bruce followed Dick upstairs, listening to him run his mouth. He couldn’t tell whether Dick was rambling out of anxiety or stress, or if he was just excitable, but he hummed along and added his two cents in when Dick paused for air.

They were passing by the room Tim had taken – Dick’s old room – when Tim stuck his head out the door.

 _“_ Dick!” he yelled, voice much louder than warranted, leaning the computer chair back _much_ farther than was safe. “ _I got it to work!”_

“Yeah?” Dick’s face split into a wide grin, and he dropped his bag by Tim’s door as he bounded in.

Bruce followed, bemused, leaning against the doorframe to observe the boys.

Dick ruffled Tim’s hair, running his knuckles over Tim’s head and making Tim swat at him. “I knew you could do it!”

On the desk, atop the piles of stray papers and notebooks and textbooks, was a robot that had the tail and front arms of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and the head of a dog that looked eerily familiar. Bruce squinted at it, wondering where he’d seen it before.

“What’re you naming it?” Dick asked, one elbow leaning lightly on Tim’s shoulder as he peered at the robot hybrid before them.

In Tim’s hands was what appeared to be the mangled fusion of multiple controllers and other odds and ends. He was fiddling with it as he spoke.

“Dino Dog?” he suggested. Tim pushed something that Bruce couldn’t see, and Dino Dog let out a ferocious elephant trumpet.

Dick frowned. “Well, you can’t call it that anymore,” he said.

“Dino Doggy-Phant?” Tim offered. As the three of them watched, the Dino Doggy-Phant waddled on what Bruce could now identify as dog legs, moving in a circle. Its upper body bent forward and backward, the arms attempting to perform some kind of dance.

There was silence for a moment, before Dick finally said, “We’ll work on the name,” and ruffled Tim’s hair again. With a lopsided grin, he added, “Robo Krypto didn’t die to become Dino Doggy-Phant.”

Oh, Bruce realised. This was _that_ robotic dog, the one that Clark had given Dick the first or second birthday he’d had at the Manor. He’d forgotten about it until now.

“He’s not _dead_ —” Tim began in exasperation, as though it was something he’d repeated a number of times already.

“I know, Timbers,” Dick said with a laugh punctuating his words. “I’m messing with you. Robo Krypto’s probably happier now than he was being stuck in that box.”

Tim eyed him. “You can’t make me believe Toy Story is real,” he said.

Dick shrugged, straightening. “Keep living in denial,” he said as he exited the room.

Bruce moved away from the door, waiting as Dick bent to pick up the bag once more.

“Didn’t realise you’d stuck around,” Dick said as they walked.

He seemed genuinely happy, a light bounce in his step. Bruce was glad; Dick had returned far too many times with the weight of Bludhaven on his back.

Bruce grunted, not wanting to admit that he’d been rooted to the spot watching Dick and Tim. Besides, they’d be going down for dinner anytime now; there was no point going back to work.

Now was when Bruce was supposed to say something. He couldn’t figure out what. _You’re good with him_ , maybe. Or something like _I didn’t realise you’d dug up your old toys_.

Dick, as always, saved him the trouble. He walked into his room, tossing the duffle bag onto the bed, and emptying his pockets of their contents. Out came candy wrappers, receipts, a couple of marbles, and one of those tiny toys they were giving out with every thirty dollars of purchase at the supermarket.

“Do you think Alfred collects?” Dick asked Bruce. He didn’t wait for an answer – which was lucky, because Bruce didn’t know – before ploughing on, “I usually hand them to the nearest kid at the store, but I figured Alfred might like it. Or Tim. But turns out Tim doesn’t even know they exist.”

He tossed it to Bruce, who caught it out of the air and peered at the strange choking hazard of a toy. It was a tiny cauliflower with legs, arms, and a face. The bottom had a suction cup, and the entire thing was rubbery.

“What’s it for?” Bruce asked finally.

He walked over to Dick’s mirror and stuck it to its surface. There was something oddly satisfying about the way the vacuum held. Bruce pulled it off the mirror, and stuck it on again.

When Dick hadn’t replied, he turned. Dick was watching him, trying not to laugh.

“You acting like a normal person is so weird,” he said, shaking his head. “They’re collectibles. That’s,” he glanced at his phone, “Chloe Cauliflower. They’re all different grocery store products, and people’re going crazy over them. Clancy showed me a group chat she has with some of the tenants.”

Bruce tossed Chloe Cauliflower back to Dick with a _hnhh_. “I’m sure Alfred will love it,” he said.

Dick smiled, and Bruce found himself out of things to say.

That wasn’t strictly true; there was plenty to say. But he couldn’t say any of them, so he walked the few steps between him and Dick and squeezed his shoulder, hoping it would convey _I’m happy you’re home_.

“Dinner should be soon,” he said. “Come down after you’ve unpacked.”

“B,” Dick said, almost interrupting him. His voice was somehow hesitant and rushed all at once, and he peered at Bruce searchingly. “This is okay, right? I know you saw it, and if you want me to change it...”

He was holding out his phone, screen showing Bruce’s contact details. There, a little bit down from his name and blatant for Bruce to see, was ‘Dad’ written in place of a nickname.

His eyes flicked to Dick’s, who was watching him minutely. “Of course it’s okay,” Bruce said. His voice felt thick, and he was going to have to go and sit down somewhere quiet after he left the room, but he was keeping his composure and that was all he could honestly ask of himself at this point.

Dick’s face broke into a relieved smile, and he began backing away, probably considering the conversation over. But some line holding Bruce in place loosened at that moment, and the hand he still had on Dick’s shoulder turned to curl around his back, tugging him in.

Dick made a surprised yelp as he was hugged, arms coming around Bruce instinctively. Bruce could count on his fingers the number of times he’d initiated a hug. He patted Dick and released him, stepping back.

Dick was blinking at him, for once without something to say.

The weight that he’d thought had been holding these words back eased when he spoke. “It’s good to have you home,” Bruce said. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!!! 
> 
> I know literally nothing about Krypto the dog btw so let's pretend he existed when Dick was a kid. (The fact that Dick's childhood was Ages ago makes it hilarious writing about his experiences as a kid lol like I went to say that he'd added emojis to Alfred's contact name when emojis came out, but that felt really out of the timeline for him in terms of canon. I have since then Googled when emojis came out and apparently it was 1997? Which is much more recent than I thought)
> 
> EDIT: realised i forgot to add,,, Chloe Cauliflower is a legit thing. One of the supermarkets here started this thing where you get [Stikeez](https://stikeez.coles.com.au/) every x amount spent. This is like,,, the fourth version of them, and people went actually insane over them, particularly when the 'rare' ones came out. I have,, so many,,,, random fruits and vegetables,, and nothing to Do with them,,,
> 
> My bingo card is in the series description if anyone wants to request a square, and feel free to come chat w me on [tumblr](https://fanfictiongreenirises.tumblr.com/)!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * A [Restricted Work] by [PM_reads (PrincessMariana)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessMariana/pseuds/PM_reads) Log in to view. 




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